Which resort has it all....

MMmmm don't really have a favourite, I usually don't do purpose built although there are some tastefully purpose built resorts, I normally don't do crowds of brits so it has to be somewhere big enough where you can lose the Brits ......... so in Summer it will have to be Livigno now in the winter ...... anywhere thats reasonable priced !!!!

Tony - I think Mayrhofen and st anton will be mentioned quite alot on this thread. I havent skied either so cannot comment, however i would certainly like to pay them a visit.

Ally - You couldnt say it any better. my OH found out 1st hand this yr that there is nothing to do in VT when your ill or dont ski. She had to visit a doctor as she caught flu and as a result missed almost 3 days skiing... :(

crispyapplepie wrote:Ally - You couldnt say it any better. my OH found out 1st hand this yr that there is nothing to do in VT when your ill or dont ski. She had to visit a doctor as she caught flu and as a result missed almost 3 days skiing... :(

Crispyapplepie,
I'm sorry to hear your OH was ill and missed almost 3 days of ski-ing.

I worry about getting ill, either just before the holiday or during it. I look forward to it for so long, and it's so expensive that missing any of the ski-ing is a major tragedy! Last year I skied for two days after I broke my big toe (only I didn't know it was broken at the time - just very sore).

If you're going to end up unable to ski for whatever reason, Courchevel is a much better place in the 3 Valleys to stay than Val Thorens. I wouldn't like to actually buy anything in any of the shops (because of the outrageous prices), but window shopping can be great fun! The only bad thing is that Courchevel doesn't have a public swimming pool, presumably because many of the posh hotels have their own one, but if you're prepared to pay a very inflated price you can use a hotel one.

Ally

I'd agree about VT being terrible for non ski activities - struggled to fill a few hours alst week before the bus came to get us on the final day.

I thank my lucky stars that when my wife was hit there a few years a go it was at 4pm on the last ski day so we dint have to deal with that issue.

I've always been tempted by St Anton but have seen alot of reports that there's only one run home and it gets dangerously crowded? Sounds like the very end of the Medran run back to town in Verbier which I found hellish with beginners carnage all over it at 4pm on a busy day

I'd be interested in experiences from people about this supposed iisue in St Anton (loads of chalets puts it on my list)

I have a luxury if skiing every weekend which means I don't have a spectacular choice of the resorts unless I want to spend too long in a car. Verbier is for me any time, great terrain and fun place. I like skiing in Chamonix too, but it has a more hardcore feel about it and is not a village but a proper town. The only other place I skied is Zermatt, it's spectacular but I found skiing a bit boring there.

Great, useful thread :!:

I must admit I have not been to many resorts in Alps or North America, but
so far my favourites are:

1. Whistler, almost perfect with 2 glaciers, very well prepared pistes and modern lift system, good off-piste, very high standards of accomodation in the stylish village. The main drawbacks are very expensive lift passes, not great apres and looong flying/transfer time.

2. Verbier, superb off-piste, very good variety of runs, views, stylish village, great apres-ski. Main drawbacks: poor piste marking/mapping, links with other parts of 4V far from convenient, although to be improved I hear :), no ski buses from other villages, and expensive apres-ski.

Oh, and Krynica, mainly for pre and apres )

I can't see any problem with only one home run. I thought it was typical as a mountain would have one access point, even if there is two the second one would be on the other side. Plus there is no need to ski to the base. Lifts can do the job just fine:). But last time I checked there was no "beginners carnage" even when crowded. Ski bases were a bigger concern.

verbier_ski_bum wrote:I can't see any problem with only one home run. I thought it was typical as a mountain would have one access point, even if there is two the second one would be on the other side. Plus there is no need to ski to the base. Lifts can do the job just fine:). But last time I checked there was no "beginners carnage" even when crowded. Ski bases were a bigger concern.

I was in Verbier over New Year a few years ago and the bottom of the Medran was horrendous - beginners not knowing where their snowplough was going next mixed in with idiots zooming down at speeds that were far too fast. I used the road!

Lots of resorts have multiple runs home - I'd just heard that particular criticism of St Anton (amongst many plaudits) and wanted to here what people thought